You are about to enter Weber Towers, a fictional skyscraper which metaphorically
represents the American stratification system.

Imagine that you are on the janitorial staff of the building, along with me, your
sage janitor.  You will visit four floors in this building, and along the way you will
learn about social inequality.  You will also get to know the families that live
in these apartments by taking note of the items that you see in their apartments.
Over the academic term, you will get further embroiled in the soap opera of how their
lives intersect.

Your tours through the building will begin in the lunchroom.  When you arrive
there each time, you should click on the "key" to find out what we are up to for the day.
Then follow the directions.  For example, in the first activity you will initially go down to the
basement from the lunchroom.  The elevator panel on the left will allow you to go there.

In each apartment, there are 3 "hot" items to look at by clicking on them.  They are the
TV and two other items (usually, but not always on the table).   These are always places
where you'll get some information about the family that lives in the apartment you're in.
Sometimes objects show up in places other than the table.

Before leaving the apartment, click on the old-fashioned key on the left side of the screen.
This is where I get to tell you a bit about the theme for this activity, and I provide instructions
for the next step.  Also, you are welcome to leave your opinion or ideas on the clipboard
that you see on the left side of the screen.

At the end of each tour through Weber Towers, you will come to a transition page that
allows you to return to the course web site.  From there you can again click on "Weber
Towers" and it will return you to this page.

Ready?  Click on the activity you want to complete now.  I strongly suggest that you do them
in order, or else it will be like starting a novel part way through the book. 


 
Activity 1  Activity 2  Activity 3
Activity 4 Activity 5 Activity 6
Activity 7 Activity 8 Activity 9

 

(last updated January 30, 2001)